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Ishani, an Economics major, is the newest (and youngest) addition to the Revenu8 editorial team. Her infectious millennial curiosity to deep-dive into all things tech has led her to track the innovators and disruptors in the martech and HR tech world, and bring their stories to life in through the MarTalk and HRTalk Executive Interview Series. Her goal is to help simplify business technology for functional teams and enable a smooth digital transformation for them. Ishani’s loves to immerse herself in the constantly-changing digital world, and she is always bringing exciting new editorial ideas to the team . On weekdays, Ishani works towards building a successful career in Communications, but on weekends this twinkle-toed dreamer, who is already well-trained in Salsa, Jive, Classical and Hip-Hop, explores other dance forms to perfect. For all editorial queries on the MarTalk/ HRTalk Interview series, please email ishani.banerjee@martechadvisor.com / ishani.banerjee@hrtechnologist.com

HRTalk is our Interview Series with the leadership at HR Technology companies that are redefining the way HR functions. Join us as we talk to them about their solutions, their insights about HR as a function and some bonus pro-tips on making HR Tech work for you!

An employee's work-life balance is one of the biggest components of their overall life experience. This week we have Linda Mougalian from ADP share her pro-tips on improving engagement and job satisfaction along with insights on the entire human capital management (HCM) spectrum from recruitment to retirement. She also talks about ADP's solution, Global Cash Card that helps provide a complete picture of an employee's financial well-being. Linda holds a BA from the University of Virginia and MBA from William Paterson University.

Let’s start by briefly introducing ADP. In a sentence, what is ADP and what’s its unique value proposition? Tell us about your growth story?

ADP® satisfies the entire human capital management (HCM) spectrum from recruitment to retirement for companies of all sizes, ranging from just one employee to tens of thousands. We serve 700,000 clients domestically and internationally, providing levels of service ranging from payroll technology to full HR outsourcing as part of our professional employer organization (PEO) business.

As one of the world’s largest and most experienced payroll and HR providers, ADP has an exceptionally strong 68-year track record and we’re on the brink of transforming the market. We are leveraging all of our assets to change the industry in a way that only our unique data set will allow.

Our goal is to provide compelling solutions that address market needs that people don’t even know they have yet.

Do you think Employee Experience can be a competitive advantage for firms? What role would HR Tech play in enabling EX as a strategy?

Yes, at ADP we believe that EX is definitely a competitive advantage.

An employee’s work-life balance is one of the biggest components of their overall life experience and by making the value of work more transparent to them, you can improve engagement and job satisfaction.

According to the ADP Research Institute® study, “Evolution of Work 2.0”, only about one-third of U.S. employees give their companies high marks on career performance, compensation, learning management, onboarding, succession planning and recruitment strategies. ADP is helping clients provide a more compelling employee experience with tools that enhance all of these processes. Recently, we’re taking even greater strides to improve the pay experience with our acquisition of Global Cash Card™.

Global Cash Card allows us to support the changing ways people want to get paid, especially as the gig economy changes the way many people earn a living. This flexible digital payment platform lets us push pay to employees when and how they need it and employees can carry their digital account from one employer to the next. So, whether you have full-time employees or contractors, we’re providing your workforce with online tools to help them manage their digital accounts.

This includes online bill pay, rewards plan enrollment, and an expense manager that allows people to organize, categorize and budget their expenses. All of this helps engage employees by bringing together in one place both their wages and their most significant financial transactions and providing a more complete picture of their financial well-being.

What is your take on the massive explosion of HR Tech companies across so many categories? Salesforce as well is making inroads into the HR space. Do you see competition, opportunities to partner and/or integrate?

It’s no surprise that HCM is a hot market given that employees spend such a significant portion of their lifetime at work and employers need the tools to manage their employees “work life” experience. I think the landslide of players in the space just proves that we were in the right market to begin with and now everyone else is figuring that out too!

ADP employment data is the richest in the world and the ADP Marketplace provides access to this data in a way that makes it easier for clients, developers, integrators, niche players and start-ups to tap into data in a way that was not possible before.

ADP Marketplace is the ultimate opportunity for us to work with partners for the betterment of our mutual clients.

Is HRMS going mobile? What is your take on this?

Yes, we live in a mobile world and everyone wants a seamless work experience. HR practitioners, managers and employees need to be able to access their workforce data, whether they’re at a desktop or waiting at the airport. The more they can interact with the data they need, the more productive they are. So, whether that’s a candidate applying for a job on their mobile device or an employee putting in a time off request and a manager approving it in real-time. People need to be able to do things when they are thinking about them.

ADP is leveraging our extensive data warehouse to generate deep insights using data science and then pushing that information out to HR practitioners and managers on their mobile devices based on what’s important to them so they can act on it in real-time.

Artificial intelligence can help managers in conjunction with their mobile device. One example could be providing a notification through geo-fencing to let them know of local employees who may be a flight risk. This would allow them to take proactive steps to drive retention.

Human Capital Management Software vs. Payroll and HR Software. What according to you is the difference and which is better?

ADP is taking a holistic HCM approach by considering HR, payroll, benefits, time and talent as a single end-to-end experience. Traditionally, vendors served HR or payroll so HR practitioners had to connect those systems and didn’t have full exposure to the data they needed. Companies need access to data in a cohesive way in order to have full visibility into their workforce and make better informed decisions. This is why we look at the landscape through a holistic HCM lens and not just payroll or HR.

While companies have always had an essential need to do payroll accurately and well, they are also now realizing the importance of HR data to drive business outcomes more than ever before.

Within the HR space, where it’s vital to make sure that a lot of sensitive information is seamlessly moved from recruiting, onboarding, benefits, to payroll, HR Tech relieves a lot of headaches and questions. What are some other challenges you have noticed that HRMS can address?

One of the biggest challenges companies face is connecting data in their HCM system with their financial and other business management platforms.

Companies need to connect these systems in order to gain business insights into things like labour costs and business performance and to discover opportunities to optimize investments across the organization. An open HCM solution allows these connections without the burden of extensive manual efforts or IT dependence.

What is one trend in the human resources software industry that you've noticed in the past three to six months and you think will continue in the future too?

There are many but if I have to pick just one I’d say that

companies today are realizing that work is not done in the way that an organization’s structure is laid out, but rather on dynamic teams of full-time and contingent workers forming and disbanding around projects and key initiatives.

What questions are your buyers asking you? How is that impacting your product/solution roadmap? Are there any new features or upcoming upgrades that you’re excited about and would like to give us a sneak peek into?

A question I hear a lot is, “How do I get a holistic view of my workforce now that I am leveraging contingent workers on a more regular basis?”